


Ave atque vale

by RosiePaw



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: First Person, Introspection, S4E1 episode tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-15 03:26:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9216527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosiePaw/pseuds/RosiePaw





	

Why did she do it?

Yes, I made mistakes.  _Yes_ , I was cocky, over-confident, I admit it.  I should have seen that Vivian Norbury had a gun in that handbag.  It should have been obvious, but I failed to observe.

Then again, so did she.

Two possible targets at point blank range.  Only a professional could make a torso shot at that distance without it being fatal.

Two possible targets – so I made sure I would be the one chosen.  Or that was the plan.  I’d made a vow and I meant to keep it.  Words can be a weapon.  I sliced at Norbury with words until the woman fired back.

She knew what I was planning.  She kept trying to warn me off.  Retired super-agent with a terrifying skill set, used to making rapid decisions in violent situations.  The gun shot can’t have come as a surprise to her.  Anything she did was intentional.

So why did she do it?

I suppose we were friends.  (How odd to think I have more than one friend now.)  But she had an infant daughter – and a husband.  She had John, never mind that silly affair he’d already broken off.  She _had_ John, had his loyalty.  His love.  A _friend_ might have screamed a warning.

Mary threw herself in front of me.

_Why?_

I’d promised her I’d keep her safe.  Why didn’t she let me keep that promise?

Unless...

Two groups of people knew about AGRA – those who were members and those who hired them.  No, make that three groups.  Ajay was held in captivity and tortured for six years.  No meddling brothers to rescue _him_.  Everyone breaks eventually, so how much did his captors learn?  And to whom might they have sold or traded that information?

Did Mary know?  Did she know she was already a target, and for a far more serious threat than the likes of Vivian Norbury?

I’d promised her I’d keep her safe.  Did she think I was outmatched - or did she know it?

Had she already decided that her own life was forfeit?

Did she use Norbury as a convenient opportunity to protect John and Rosamund by removing herself from them as far as possible?  John and I tracked her down once.  So this time, she went farther.

The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns.

_Ave atque vale_ , Rosamund Mary Elizabeth Morstan Watson.

She left me with an order and an instruction, and I will honour them.  I _will_ save John Watson.

Even if I have to go to hell to do it.


End file.
